Ch.59How to Conquer Black Cat

# Electris’s Third Day in W City

Electris had been in W City for three days now.

True to her word, she had completely recovered from her injuries.

She sat on the desk with her legs crossed, wearing her perfectly repaired flight jacket, tank top, special material leggings, and rugged sneakers.

Electris was crackling with sparks in the operations room.

“I’ll kill that cat thing right away and find that damn bastard before my time here is up… I was being lenient back then. Next time I see him, I’ll rip out some rebar and instantly…”

“Could you tone down your ability a bit?”

Electris, who had been quietly fuming, turned her head sharply when she heard Starlight, Yu Anna’s voice.

“Hmph, why should I?”

“The other heroes are uncomfortable.”

“I’m just warming up so I can spring into action anytime, you know? And if someone’s uncomfortable with this, it just means they’re weak, right? Tell the weaklings to shut up.”

Seeing Iron Might enter the operations room, Electris called out in an irritable voice.

“Hey! A-rank! Drinks! Bring them!”

“Go buy them yourself.”

“How does W City train its juniors anyway?”

Yu Anna sighed.

Electris was a typical case of strong against the weak, weak against the strong. This was how much she listened to fellow S-rank heroes.

It was fortunate that she didn’t act this way toward monsters, but there wasn’t an S-rank hero more exhausting to other heroes than her.

Moreover, among W City’s citizens… there was no hero more criticized than her.

[Why is this Electris or whatever doing in W City?]

[First time I’ve seen a hero with such garbage personality.]

[I got knocked out by that Electris woman and had my restaurant seat stolen. When I woke up, my company’s lunch break was over.]

[My arm got electrocuted and it’s not working properly… Thankfully my monster damage insurance was approved.]

[I got hit by trash that Electris threw while flying around. Is this covered by insurance?]

She loved eating and would cut in line at restaurants wherever she went.

She never carried a wallet and would tell people to bill the Hero Headquarters before disappearing.

If she thought citizens weren’t listening to her, she would shock them unconscious.

[Do heroes act like this in A City?]

[To be fair, there’s nothing citizens can do about it. She’s an S-rank superhuman after all.]

[Wow, this suddenly makes Starlight seem like a real angel.]

[Electris shocked someone for “education” because they didn’t greet an S-rank hero. Is this what heroes should be doing?]

Day by day, the number of citizens who disliked Electris was growing in W City.

At the same time, people were beginning to compare her to Black Cat.

[Why is everything Electris does so infuriating?]

[This woman is a hero while W City’s most adorable Black Cat is a monster?]

[Is she really here to catch Black Cat? Why catch Black Cat at all?]

[I think it’s because of those Bad Cats causing trouble before. They want to catch Black Cat before it goes wild too.]

[But Black Cat is behaving well now, so why bother?]

[Cage couldn’t catch it, how would Electris?]

[Black Cat is way better than Electris, can’t they just leave it alone?]

After news spread that Electris had come to hunt Black Cat, people went beyond defending Black Cat to actively cheering for it.

[If they mess with it and fail to catch it, won’t Black Cat really go wild this time?]

[Is she here to increase monster damage in W City? Is she an A City hero or a terrorist?]

[I hope she gets beaten up and leaves like Cage did.]

[Don’t kill her, just beat her to within an inch of her life.]

[Go Black Cat~]

Hoping that Electris would get taught a lesson and flee rather than hunt Black Cat—this sentiment wasn’t limited to W City’s citizens.

“Wow, never thought I’d want to cheer for a monster fighting a hero.”

“Can Electris even handle Black Cat?”

“Senior, are you really going to hunt Black Cat? What about our meeting the other day?”

“…I don’t know either.”

The decision to leave Black Cat alone for now was made in a secret meeting among W City heroes.

Now that an S-rank hero had been dispatched from another city, they had no choice but to follow the Black Cat hunt.

There was no justification for refusing.

Monsters are meant to be hunted, and heroes exist to catch monsters.

“I’m worried that if Black Cat is really caught, things will get tiresome like before…”

“I know.”

Currently, W City was benefiting greatly from what could be called the “Black Cat effect.”

In this situation, there was nothing to gain from hunting Black Cat.

If Black Cat were caught, W City, already short on hero manpower, would become busy again.

Not to mention the noise from citizens who supported Black Cat.

[Disaster-rank monster appeared in Sector 6! Repeat, Disaster-rank monster in Sector 6! A-rank hero on site is engaging!]

Just then, the alert everyone had been waiting for sounded.

According to plan, an A-rank hero was holding off a Disaster-rank monster while minimizing civilian casualties.

Whenever response was delayed in situations like this, Black Cat would appear to help the heroes.

[Black Cat has appeared!]

“There it is!”

At this long-awaited news, Electris jumped up with a thunderous sound and leaped out the window.

The heroes grimaced at the shattered window and residual current left in the operations room.

Yu Anna shouted to the personnel in the operations room as she followed.

“All personnel! Prepare for any contingency! Stand by in combat mode!”

After jumping out the window and accelerating, Yu Anna sighed as she watched Electris’s afterimage speeding far ahead.

While Starlight’s top speed was limited to the speed of sound even with gradual acceleration, Electris could reach supersonic speeds with virtually zero acceleration time.

She was the fastest hero, able to move at lightning speed for brief moments.

[Electris confronting Black Cat!]

“Get the A-rank hero on site to evacuate!”

Hearing that Electris had already arrived at the scene, Yu Anna increased her speed even more.

When Yu Anna arrived a moment later, Electris was already there, warming up with jumping jacks.

“You’re late! Is this really the S-rank who once rivaled Cage?”

“Why are you comparing heroes like that?”

Fortunately, Electris wasn’t foolish enough to charge in alone like Cage had.

The A-rank hero was evacuating, and behind him, Black Cat was visible, having been eating the Disaster-rank monster but now staring quietly at Electris.

Its ears were perked up, its tail lowered.

Its wariness had noticeably increased since the Bad Cats incident.

As Yu Anna was feeling bitter about becoming even more disliked, Electris smirked.

“That’s Black Cat? What, is it really Despair-rank? Why does it look so weak?”

“Did you… actually read the report properly?”

“Hmph, I just need to skim through that stuff.”

Black Cat possessed a new ability called concealment, allowing it to hide its power.

What one sensed and Black Cat’s true power were different.

Just as Yu Anna was starting to worry that Electris might not even know this, Black Cat sank into the shadows.

At that moment, Electris scattered an electromagnetic field in all directions.

The monster alert systems installed throughout the city were created based on Electris’s technology.

Electris was both A City’s strongest spear and a monster detector that quickly located monsters sneaking into A City.

“There!”

Rebar pulled from an unrepaired building, charged with electricity, shot out and pierced the shadow where Black Cat was.

Immediately, as Black Cat tried to sink deeper underground, Yu Anna clenched her fist above it.

Gritting her teeth, she threw a punch she didn’t want to throw, and the ground where Black Cat was hiding caved in.

A miss, but Electris followed up by driving rebar into Black Cat’s location.

Escape, pursuit, escape… After repeating this about three times, Black Cat realized escape was difficult and emerged from the shadows to stand on the ruins.

“Starlight, were you really unable to chase something that runs away at that speed?”

Yu Anna thought that Cage might have been right—with Electris, they might be able to catch Black Cat.

It would be enough help if Electris could find Black Cat faster than Yu Anna when it concealed its presence and prevent its escape.

It felt like finally grasping Black Cat’s tail after it had always been just out of reach.

Should she let go or pull? As Yu Anna hesitated at the possibility of hunting Black Cat, Electris’s entire body glowed golden.

“That just now, you just hit it, right? If it can be torn apart by that, it’s not even that tough? I heard Cage got beaten, but this is nothing!”

“Don’t let your guard down.”

“Guard down or whatever, hmm… I’m just surprised you struggled so much with something like this?”

No way, right? As Yu Anna felt uneasy, Electris took a crouching start position like a track athlete.

“Change of plans, you just provide backup. I’ll show you what an S-rank from A City is really like.”

“Hey, you!”

Before Yu Anna could express her disbelief at Electris already ignoring the plan and acting on her own, a lightning bolt struck the ground.

Raiden Surge—Electris’s finishing move that perfectly replicated the ability of the Disaster-rank monster, Thunder Tiger.

A lightning bolt named Electris, her entire body converted to energy, pierced through Black Cat.

As the thunderous sound spread like a shockwave, Black Cat’s body seemed to swell and glow golden.

White patterns appeared on its black fur, and its face became more rugged.

It had absorbed Electris’s ability, just like the Thunder Tiger, a Disaster-rank monster that controlled lightning.

“Thunder Tiger’s characteristic…!”

“GRRRROOOAAAR!”

Then, Black Cat’s body, having swallowed Electris’s ability, transformed into lightning.

With a deep, thunderous boom, it burst into light and charged. Electris escaped the lightning’s aftermath by zigzagging through the air.

“What the hell! It really turned into Thunder Tiger?”

With a rumble, Electris fell to the ground and landed stably.

She knelt with one leg stretched out, both hands on the ground.

“Then…! Now’s! The moment to attack!”

With crackling sounds, the electromagnetic field pulled in debris from buildings, forming a giant rebar concrete fist.

Thunder Tiger’s weakness was exhaustion right after charging as lightning.

Bang! Black Cat dodged the concrete mass with cat-like agility.

Black Cat was not Thunder Tiger.

It could compensate for weaknesses with characteristics from other monsters.

“What are you doing, Starlight!”

Black Cat stood on the concrete fist and opened its mouth.

High-output energy gathered in front of its mouth—a beam cannon.

At that moment, Electris shouted in panic.

“Backup!”

“Tch!”

Yu Anna reluctantly threw a punch.

Bang! As a pure destructive pillar of fire shot out, Black Cat closed its mouth and raised a firestorm like a barrier.

Fire ability and wind ability—it had shown wind control before, but its output had become strong enough to disperse Yu Anna’s flames after swallowing Storm Bird.

Space manipulation from Bad Cats, Lee Han-yeong’s swimming ability, characteristics, abilities—all the abilities Black Cat used came from what it had eaten.

Just as Yu Anna realized this, Electris, who had pulled her arm from the concrete mass, brought her hands together in front.

Between her outstretched palms, a piece of rebar extracted from the debris rotated rapidly.

With a humming sound, the melted rebar projectile transformed into a beam and fired.

Rail Gun—the technique that earned Electris the title of A City’s strongest spear.

In its path were Black Cat and buildings…

“Wait…!”

In that moment, what flashed through Yu Anna’s mind wasn’t Black Cat, but damage to buildings and civilians.

The Rail Gun’s range far exceeded Yu Anna’s ability, and it could reach beyond the evacuation zone where citizens might still be.

With a massive shockwave, everything turned white as the Rail Gun fired.

But the Rail Gun’s projectile hit nothing.

“This really is a monster? It reacted to that?”

In a split second, a black space tore open in front of them, swallowing the projectile. Black Cat reopened space above its back.

Relieved at the sight of the afterimage stretching into the sky, Yu Anna glared at Electris angrily.

“What are you doing!”

“What, why?”

“That thing of yours! It can reach beyond the zone! If you miss, the damage could…!”

“Building damage~? Hmph, if this were A City, Cage would have blocked everything.”

True to her words, in A City, the aftermath of Electris’s abilities was contained by Cage.

But in W City, there was no hero who could handle Electris’s abilities.

“This is W City, don’t shoot without thinking! What if civilians got caught in that just now!”

“Huh? What civilians? Don’t tell me… there are people who don’t evacuate from adjacent sectors when a Despair-rank monster and hero are fighting? When the monster could go anywhere?”

Electris used her ability to pull countless pieces of rebar from the concrete rubble.

“Wouldn’t it be fine if such idiots died?”

“You…!”

“More importantly, I’m curious why Black Cat blocked the Rail Gun instead of dodging it?”

With a crackling sound, electrically charged rebar shot toward Black Cat like machine gun bullets.

The red-hot rebar projectiles were powerful enough to dig deep into the ground.

Just then, Black Cat, which had been dodging the rebar falling from the sky at an angle, stopped in place.

Even when trying to dodge sideways, it returned to its position, standing still to block the attacks.

“Aha, I get it. That’s it? What was written in the report?”

Black Cat no longer dodged but used various abilities to block the rebar, while Electris unilaterally poured out her ability.

Yu Anna frowned, sensing something strange about the scene.

“This is interesting. But you couldn’t catch this until now? Ha, how incompetent is W City really?”

Electris increased her ability’s output, firing rebar with enough power to easily reach underground shelters.

At that moment, Yu Anna heard the crying of a child frightened by the ground tremors.

The source of the sound was an underground shelter behind Black Cat. Black Cat wasn’t dodging the attacks because it didn’t know how deep the rebar would penetrate.

Using the monster’s peculiarity of protecting humans, she was taking humans hostage.

“You crazy bitch! Stop it!”

Realizing what Electris was doing, Yu Anna threw a punch at her.

With a powerful impact, Electris flew back and crashed into a building.

As the ability was cut off, the falling rebar clattered down. Electris pulled herself out of the concrete rubble and spat out blood.

“…Starlight, what do you think you’re doing?”

“What are YOU doing? Do you really think this is what a hero should do?”

“If killing some citizens can help catch a Despair-rank monster, of course they should die! It’s the minimum help the powerless can offer, a noble sacrifice!”

“Noble sacrifice? Who said they wanted to make that sacrifice!”

The biggest reason Yu Anna disliked Electris was her extreme superhuman supremacism.

While Cage believed it was the duty of superhumans to lead those who had fallen behind, Electris believed that those who were obsolete and of no help to heroes might as well die.

Better to eliminate one more monster than spend time accommodating a minority that wouldn’t listen.

Those who didn’t follow heroes’ orders weren’t citizens but potential villains.

If sacrificing some powerless citizens could help catch a monster, it was acceptable.

Faced with this mindset again, Yu Anna exploded with emotion.

“I’m going to formally complain to A City about this. What you’re doing isn’t support, it’s terrorism.”

“The one committing terrorism isn’t me, it’s you! How long have you been leaving a Despair-rank monster that could be caught so easily? What if it becomes an Annihilation-rank monster? Could you handle that?”

Coldly speaking, Electris might be right.

Exploiting a monster’s characteristics was fundamental to monster subjugation, and Black Cat was a threatening monster that should be caught as soon as possible, even at a cost.

But Electris’s proposed method for dealing with Black Cat was too disgusting for Yu Anna to accept.

“Get out! The hunt is canceled. W City will handle Black Cat ourselves!”

“Are you in your right mind?”

When Yu Anna glared at her while drawing up her ability, Electris frowned, realizing she was serious.

“Ha, fine, I don’t need your help either. I can catch Black Cat by myself without your help.”

Black Cat’s weakness—if citizens were taken hostage, it would be easy.

That was the implication in her words, and Yu Anna unconsciously wrapped high-temperature flames around her arms.

“I said the Black Cat hunt is canceled.”

“Why? Because some citizens might get hurt while catching a Despair-rank monster?”

Electris faced Yu Anna and wrapped her entire body in electricity.

“When facing a monster, a Despair-rank at that, what’s the big deal if some people die? Didn’t you use 500 people or something to catch a monster recently?”

“Used…?”

“This is why you still can’t catch one Despair-rank monster. Why not exploit an obvious weakness?”

“You… shut your mouth.”

“Ah~ I get it, the rumors about you being a monster lover are true? You know everything but don’t want that cat to die, so you’re interfering? Or is it that you hate the fact that I’m a stronger S-rank hero than you or Cage?”

What could she even say to this?

Using citizens as hostages to attack a monster, then showing no understanding of what was wrong with such an illogical act.

Yu Anna was beyond angry—she was getting a headache.

“Grrrr….”

Just then, Black Cat growled.

A monster that chose to flee rather than fight heroes, Black Cat should have escaped by now.

Yu Anna, who had assumed Black Cat would have fled, looked toward the source of the sound.

A building right next to where the rebar had been raining down.

Black Cat, which she thought would have escaped, was standing still in that spot.

With an expression as angry as during the Bad Cats incident.